Baring Claws: Panther King
by CrystalTamer13
Summary: GrimmHime. Grimmjow is saved by Orihime and as he is being healed, recalls meeting her for the first time. Grimmjow leaves for the world of the living. Might add a chapter 2. Grimmjow x Orihime. R&R!


Bare Your Claws: Panther King

By: CrystalTamer

**Summary: Today I'm doing a GrimmHime (Grimmjow x Orihime) 'cuz I did an UlquiHime yesterday. I know I said comedy next, but I like romances. This is for my reviewers on Fanfiction. I luvs ya! *Grins Gin-style***

**This is sister story to The Heart: Ashes to Ashes. It takes place after Ulquiorra dies and Orihime's healing Grimmjow's wounds. He recalls the time he met Orihime and helping orchestrate her escape.**

**Grimmjow leaves for the living world. Grimmjow's POV.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach or any of these characters.**

I don't know what it was that jolted me into consciousness. I don't know whether it was that tingling feeling or the fact that Ulquiorra's riatsu had abruptly faded. My eye flew open and I shot up, smacking my head against an orange-yellow shield, letting out a long stream of profanities as I flopped backwards into the sand.

Wait a sec…tingling! I look down at my bare torso, realizing all my major wounds are closing up before my eyes, then look around. An auburn-haired girl is sprawled on her back next me.

"Ow! What was that for?" she protests.

It's that girl, Orihime, I realize. She rubs her forehead, frowning. "It's you." I state, looking at her. I get up and brush myself off, ignoring her protests of, "Sit back down! I haven't finished healing you yet!"

I snort. There's nothing but scar tissue. "I'll live." I say, grabbing her by her arm and hauling her to her feet. "What happened to Nnoitra?" I ask, looking for the fifth Espada, who I was seriously gonna kill after I found him…

Probably hiding in a hole somewhere, the cowardly, spoon-headed freak. Attacking a downed man.

Rage floods through me as I automatically recalled the memory. My blood splashing the ground as Nnoitra's scythe bit into me, Kurosaki, the stunned look on his face, as he watched me fall to my knees, blacking out, my last image, Nnoitra, his cocky-ass smile huge on his face…let's see him smile after I was done with him.

He'd be picking his teeth up off the floor…

Orihime shook her head, sending auburn bangs spilling into her eyes. "He's dead. Kenpachi killed him." she said. She pointed to a small green-haired brat running around in circles. "Nel was…he was about to kill her…But Kenny intervened."

I wave it off, showing I didn't really care, "Ulquiorra? What about him?" You look down and wipe away the tears brimming in your eyes, "He's dead too. He…Kurosaki-kun killed him." This actually surprises me a little. But still, the Emo Lord had it coming to him. It was bound to happen eventually.

"Kurosaki?"

"He's back in the world of the living. He went to go fight Aizen." she stated. Huh, I hadn't noticed until she said those last few words, the lack of Aizen's crushing Spiritual Pressure. Jeez, what was the matter with me? Was I becoming human or something? There's no way you _can't _miss that crazy-ass's Spiritual Pressure.

I start to open a Garganta, only to be stopped by the girl gripping my arms, "Stop! Wait a minute, Grimmjow! Where do you think you're going?" I tear my arm away, watching as her hands drop to her sides.

"To the human world, duh."

I try to open another Garganta, only to be stopped again as she grips my arm, holding it so tight I could not fling off her hands again. Hell, at this rate, I'd be lucky if I didn't fling her over the pile of rubble formerly known as Las Noches.

But this time, that set, determined look in your eyes stops me from throwing you off. "Please, let me heal you." she says, and I nod.

"Fine."

I sit down. I start to feel the familiar tingling touch of Soten Kisshun, reminding me of the time we first met, less than a month ago.

To be blunt, I didn't see why Aizen had wanted you so badly. You had stood behind Emo Lord Ulquiorra as Aizen seemed to stare you down. What could he possibly want from you? You were just a human, a weak, pitiful human girl who'd been dragged against her will to a place were monsters ate humans like you for a living.

"This is why you sent us to the world of the living?" Luppi screeched, gesturing angrily at you. "She's nothing but a human!"

Aizen ignores Luppi's annoying whining, looking down at you, face seeming passive and hospitable, "Orihime Inoue, is that right?" You nod, unable to speak, transfixed by Aizen's voice.

"Will you show me your power?" You nod again. Aizen beckons to me and I leap down from my perch, a fall of about twenty or thirty feet down, landing softly in front of you. "Demonstrate it for me. Heal Grimmjow's arm."

"What?" Luppi screeches, "But Commander Tousen turned it to ashes. That's impossible-!" He turns to you, as you whisper, "Soten Kisshun" and a golden barrier extends over the right side of my body, and I can feel the now-familiar tingle start at my shoulder and work its way down.

As I watched, stunned, my arm was growing back. Meanwhile, Luppi, unable to see this is screaming at you, "Are you ignoring me, girl? If this is some kind of trick, I'm gonna-" The words die in his throat as you step aside, revealing my arm, good as new.

I look down at you. "Hey, girl." I say, "Can you heal something else for me?" I indicate the scar on my back. You nod, placing your hand on my back, touching the scar. "Here?" you ask.

"Yeah."

I feel a tingle, briefer than the last one. I crane my neck back, seeing the number six tattoo on my hip. Luppi's screeching again and I hear Aizen say that there cannot be two sexta Espada. I grin at Luppi and he turns to run, but it's too late.

I fired my Cero and the bottom half of Luppi's body hits the floor with a muffled thud. "Interesting." Aizen says staring at you as if you were a steak and he a starving man, "Earlier, Ulquiorra proposed an interesting theory to me; that the power you possess is a form of spatial-temporal restoration."

I sneak a look at Ulquiorra.

As usual, the Emo Lord looks absolutely expressionless.

"But," Aizen continues, "I don't think that's completely accurate. Your power-it exceeds even the boundaries of the gods."

I'm bored so I tune him out until an hour later he dismisses us to do as we please.

It's probably a few hours later when I walk by the prisoner's cell, not intending on stopping until I heard the Emo Lord say, "Put them on before I undress you myself. I stopped in my tracks, reclining against the wall as Orihime pushes him out of her cell, face red as a tomato, slamming the cell door in the Emo Lord's face before he can say a word. I can't help but laugh at him.

"What's the matter, Ulquiorra? Can't handle a little girl?" I say, still laughing. He snorts at me, looking me directly in the eye as he shoots back, "Whatever. At least I was able to handle the substitute Soul Reaper. "Why you-!"

I grab him by the collar of his white jacket, hurling swearwords and insults at him, when Gin Ichimaru, the second-in-command, saunters into the room. "Hey, y'all two! Cap'n Aizen wants to see ya's in the meetin' hall right away!" He stopped, blinked (It's Ichimaru. I've learned the safest option is not to ask.), and asked, "Um, am I interruptin' somethin'?"

I release my grip on Ulquiorra, and stalk angrily out of the room, "No, I'm through with him, anyway." I hear the Emo Lord and Ichimaru fall into step behind me.

A little while later the Emo Lord brushes past me, a bruise beginning to form on his cheek. I wonder if he went through-or at least attempted to-with trying to undress you. I get that image in my head and start laughing.

Served him right.

Only when I passed your cell I heard the muffled sobs, peering in your cell, seeing you press your arm to your eyes, wiping away the tears forming there. Oh great, what did the Emo Lord do now?

"Hey, gir-Orihime," I correct myself gruffly, "What happened? With you and the Emo Lord?" She jumped, whirling around to face me, seeing my face pressed against the bars of her tiny, bleak cell.

"Emo Lord?" she asks.

"A little nickname I came up with for Mr. Short, Dark and Dreary. Ulquiorra." I said. She stifles a giggle, then tells me what he told her. I snort at this and say, "The Emo Lord really does have no people skills whatsoever."

She is startled into a laugh.

She has a pretty laugh.

"How much longer is this going to take?" I growl impatiently, making her giggle at me. "Grimmjow, hasn't anyone ever told you that patience is a virtue?"

I rolled my eyes. "Hasn't anyone ever told you that whoever came up with that statement is an idiot?" She sighs, "Fine. Just a few more minutes."

I burst through your wall with a Cero, tearing Loly off you. She lashes out at me, but I simply throw her aside, her head cracking against the wall, blood dripping from the wound, and she slumps to the ground, unconscious and sadly still breathing. Menoly looks at her friend, then glared at me angrily, charging up a Cero in her right palm.

She races at me, Cero in hand. I grab her Cero, cutting through it with my own. She falls to the ground, the top right portion of her body blasted away. You're sitting there, staring at me, stunned but alive.

You're a mess, I think, looking at you. Bruises cover your pale face and your dress is shredded. Your hair, usually neatly held back by your hairpins, was hanging in your face, soaked with blood from a cut on your forehead.

"Come with me."

I grab your hand, pulling you to your feet. "Grimmjow?" you ask, "What's wrong?"

"The Emo Lord got in my way, that's what's wrong." I state, ten seconds from picking you up and carrying you if that's what's necessary. Then I try a different tactic. "Kurosaki needs you. He'll die if we don't hurry."

Your eyes widen.

"Then let's go."

You look from me to Kurosaki, and back to me again as you begin to realize why I brought you here. You frown, "No. I am not healing him just so you can kill him."

I can now understand why the Emo Lord calls you 'Defiant Girl'. "Shut up! I let you bring him back from the verge of death so quit your bitching! Sooner or later, Ulquiorra's gonna wise up and come back, so before that hap-"

"What are you doing…Grimmjow?"

Ulquiorra's cold voice shuts me up mid-rant as the child Arrancar screams at him to "Leave Itsygo alone!"

"What's the matter?" he asks, "I'm asking you a question. What do you think you're doing going out of your way to heal the injuries of an enemy I've already defeated?" I glare at him.

"Are you not going to answer?"

"This isn't your fight, Ulquiorra." The Emo Lord just stares blankly at me (So that's the Emo Lord's secret to unconditional surrender. Glare the enemy down till he/she pisses themselves,) "He's my prey. Not yours."

"Aizen-sama has placed the Inoue girl in my care." he states, "So hand her over." I roll my eyes at him. Like I give a rat's ass about him and his precious "Aizen-sama."

He moves closer and I leap at him, firing off a Cero, laughing as he slaps it away and uses Sonido, trying to get behind me and fire a Cero of his own, I turn, blocking it by firing another Cero at the Emo Lord. The two Cero exploded into each other, sending me tumbling through the air.

I righted myself, spotting Ulquiorra fly into a pillar. Before he could react, I hauled him up by his collar, placed my hand over his Hollow Hole, and said, "Caja Negacion,"

Ulquiorra's eyes grew wide as the Caja Negacion swallowed him, disappearing into the black-hole like portal. I could swear I heard him mutter, "Damn you, werecat." before the darkness swallowed him.

Good-bye, Emo Lord.

"What was that?" Kurosaki asks, shocked. "Aizen gave us Espada these 'Caja Negacion' so we could punish our subordinates. That's what I used. They're like little boxes that can eternally entrap weaker Arrancar in another dimension."

I look at the spot where Ulquiorra had been. "But it's not designed to be used on another Espada. He'll get out in two, maybe three hours max." I lock eyes with you now, "So if you understand hurry up and heal him."

"No."

You cross your arms over your chest, glaring stubbornly at me. I reach out grasping her neck, "I'm not asking you if you want to or not, so just heal him up, already!"

Suddenly, Ichigo's hand shoots out, grabbing my wrist. "Let her go…" he says, standing up using my arm for support. I shake him off and he stumbles backwards, "Urg…Inoue. Please heal my injuries."

"Huh?"

"And then," Ichigo pointed to me. "Heal his too." I scowl at him, "Knock it off. I'm not some charity case. I don't want your pity."

"And, I'm not giving it." Ichigo retorted, "You said you wanted to fight on even ground. Or are you saving those injuries as an excuse for when you lose?" That set me off, and I lunged for him, sword drawn.

"This is awesome! We're going to have a death match on even ground!"

I think I owe you another favor.

Wait…no, two favors.

"Tch. What a bad loser." I hear Nnoitra say as his scythe bites into me. I fall to the ground and just as everything fades, I hear Nnoitra sneer, "Just hurry up and die already. The Shinigami's mine."

I can hear you screaming my name.

"Whew! All done!"

I stand up as the shield disappears. I flick my wrist out, opening a Garganta. "I'm going to the human world."

"Why?"

I shrugged nonchalantly, "I just realized I owe you another favor. So I'm going to go save that 'Kurosaki-kun' you care about so much." I step into the Garganta. "See ya."

I turn just as the Garganta closes to see you smiling warmly at me. I hear your last few words as it closes, "Thanks, Grimmjow. See ya soon."

The End.

**Ta-da! My first GrimmHime! I tied it in a lot with my other story The Heart: Ashes to Ashes and the manga as best I could! I hope y'all like it! I think Grimmkitty is still alive actually, the Bleach Wiki lists him as Status Unknown, but since Orihime's still in Hueco Mundo, this could actually happen.**

**Anyway, Crystal, over and out! Read and Review, ok. Just no flames-unstealths zanpakto-or ya die!**

**PS: Emo Lord sounds like something Grimmjow would call Ulquiorra, just as Ulquiorra calls him werecat and demon-cat.**


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